Tom Clancy Obituary

Lessons From The Life Of Tom Clancy

Clancy may have died today, but his legacy will live on, and his life has much to teach us about the nature of success.

Earlier today, Tom Clancy, the author of acclaimed best-selling novels like Patriot Games, The Sum of All Fears and The Hunt For Red October, died in a Baltimore hospital after a brief illness. He was just 66 years old. It's possible that you've never read a Tom Clancy novel, and it's even possible that you've never heard his name, but it's unlikely that you haven't felt his influence, in one way or another.

After a brief stint running a small insurance agency, Clancy published his first novel, The Hunt For Red October, in 1984. It was the year's biggest surprise in fiction, earning Clancy a book contract worth $3 million. Its popularity was fueled, in part, by then-President Ronald Reagan publicly praising it. Since that fateful first publication, Clancy has gone on to attach his name to numerous movies, video games and even a sports franchise, and has reached the bestseller lists with every single novel he's ever written.

Clancy may have died today, but his legacy will live on, and his life has much to teach us about the nature of success. Here are three major life lessons to take from Tom Clancy's example.

1. Work HardProbably the most obvious takeaway from Clancy's life has to do with his work ethic. From the time of the publication of his first published novel in 1984 to the present, he wrote over 26 books, more than a dozen of which reached the No. 1 spot on The New York Times' Best Sellers list, and cowrote dozens more. When he wasn't writing a new novel, he was researching his favorite interests, including combat and military history, or planning a non-fiction book, such as his best-selling insider account of U.S. Special Forces' operations, Shadow Warriors.

2. Don't Be Afraid To Branch OutIn the last few decades, only a handful of writers managed to sell novels on par with Tom Clancy. The shortlist would include J.K. Rowling, Stephen King and John Grisham. But what separated Clancy from these three was what he did when he wasn't writing bestsellers.

He sold the film rights to his most beloved books, leading to blockbusters like The Hunt For Red October (1990)and Patriot Games (1992). His featured protagonist, Jack Ryan, has been played by such A-list actors as Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, with Chris Pine set to reprise the role later this year.

But Clancy's real success outside the printed page began in 1996, when he cofounded Red Storm Entertainment, a video game development company that would capitalize on his brand with popular series like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. It all paid off when Red Storm Entertainment was bought out by Ubisoft, who would capitalize on Clancy's brand to create the popular stealth-action series Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, which has sold over 20 million copies.

3. Be Your Own BrandIn the immortal words of Jay-Z, "I'm not a businessman; I'm a business, man!" Unlike most authors who remain in the shadows, Tom Clancy built a brand around his name so powerful that, as one Forbes analyst put it, everything he wrote was a guaranteed bestseller. Not only that, he never shied from endorsing other products and writers he believed in. Thus, not only do several different video game series borrow his name, characters and scenarios, but whole books he had nothing to do with writing extend the Clancy universe. Oh, and he received sizable royalties from all these ventures. If you ever hope to earn over $50 million in a year, you'd better ensure your brand's credibility is sky-high. And thanks to his in-depth knowledge of his subject matter and his tireless passion for storytelling, Clancy's was — and remains — just that.